DESCRIPTION

Find an old tome containing ancient teachings of druidic lore which describes four different trials that will enable you to transform into powerful beasts that have the ability to harness the devastating forces of nature.

Upon reaching level 10 and returning the Dragonstone to Farengar, a courier will deliver a letter to the player which triggers the quest "Lost Practices".

This mod adds 4 transformation lesser powers in the Alteration school of magic to the player's arsenal. They are lesser powers which means that Alteration perks do not affect magicka cost. Alteration enchanted gear will reduce the magicka required to cast it though.

The transformations come equipped with their own special abilities. The monster skills use up stamina instead of magicka and the transformations last indefinitely.

TRANSFORMATION SPELLS

Note: Pressing the "Shout" key anytime during a transformation will revert you back to your original form. Also, the jump actions for wolf and tiger both can serve as an attack.

Aspect of Frost - This spell will grant the user access to the powers of the frost wolf.

Left Click: Feral Bite - A melee attack with razor sharp teeth.

Right Click: Frost Breath - A freezing breath attack.

Left & Right Click: Frigid Storm - Sub-zero winds form three icicles that shoot down towards the target and impales it.

Aura: The frost wolf encases foes in ice hindering their movement.

Passive: The frozen wolf is resistant to ice and more agile than any other form which gives it a bonus to movement speed. Also at higher levels (40 and above), the wolf freezes the path it walks on enabling it to walk on water.

Aspect of Fire - This spell will grant the user access to the powers of the flaming tiger.

Left Click: Fiery Strike - A melee attack with razor sharp claws.

Right Click: Flame breath - A flaming breath attack.

Left & Right Click: Blazing Inferno - The tiger generates intense flames around its body, scorching everything within the blast radius.

Aura: Rising temperatures deals continuous fire damage against foes, making them more vulnerable to intense heat.

Passive: The flaming tiger is resistant to fire and has more energy to unleash more havoc to its foes.

Aspect of Earth - This spell will grant the user access to the powers of the earth bear.

Right Click: Rapid Dash - The bear lunges forward which generates a shockwave to stagger opponents.

Left & Right Click: Shockwave - The bear slams its paw on the ground dealing AoE damage.

Aura: An aftershock that disables enemies eventually making them unfit for battle.

Passive: The bear has fortified health and damage resistance but has a severe penalty to magic resistance.

Aspect of Nature - This spell will grant the user access to the powers of the healing tree spirit.

Left Click: Regrowth - The tree spirit's health and stamina are healed for 10 seconds.

Right Click: Nature's Swarm - The tree spirit focuses its magicka into a beam attack that deals magic damage. This skill spends magicka instead of stamina.

Spacebar: Nature's Call - The tree spirit summons smaller tree spirits to aid in battle. Number of tree spirits summoned depend on Alteration skill. Each tree spirit summoned lasts 30 seconds. Note that the tree spirits have their essences bound to the player. Any damage dealt to them will inflict a portion of damage to the player.

Aura: Healing Presence - The tree spirit heals nearby allies.

Passive: The healing guardian has fortified magical resistance.

TRANSFORMATION BONUSES

Each of the beast forms have bonus stats depending on the druid's level:

Frost Form

The frost form's health, stamina, damage resistance, magic resistance, frost resistance, and speed improve as the player levels up. Moreover, each point in stamina increases each stat by a given amount. This means that characters who have a decent amount of stamina will have a slightly more powerful frost form.

Fire Form

The fire form's health, stamina, damage resistance, magic resistance, fire resistance, and speed improve as the player levels up. Moreover, each point in stamina increases each stat by a given amount. This means that characters who have a decent amount of stamina will have a slightly more powerful fire form. Note that the fire form's speed bonus is inferior to the frost form's speed bonus.

Earth Form

The earth form's health, stamina, and damage resistance improve as the player levels up. Each point in health increases each stat by a given amount. This means that characters who have a decent amount of health will have a slightly more powerful earth form. Note that the earth form gets a gradual penalty to magic resistance and will keep going down as you level up. On the plus side, the earth form has the most superior bonus on health and damage resistance among all aspects.

Nature Form

The nature form's health, stamina, damage resistancem, and magic resistance improve as the player levels up. Each point in magicka increases each stat by a given amount. This means that characters who have a decent amount of magicka will have a slightly more powerful nature form. While the nature aspect only has average stats, it boasts the most magic resistance among the four aspects.

COMPLETING THE TRIALS

Generally speaking the aspects are easy to defeat. It all depends on knowing what you're dealing with and what gear you're supposed to be equipped with.

Trial of IceThe spirit of the wolf is the weakest of the four aspects. It is obviously resistant to any type of frost power but equally vulnerable to fire. Pushing the wolf towards the water should also prove foolish as it can walk on water. In terms of gearing up you should be stocked with frost resistance potions and have some frost resistance enchanted gear.

Trial of FireThe spirit of the tiger is highly resistant to fire but equally vulnerable to frost. The tiger also is able to dish out an immense amount of damage very quickly while you're close to it so be sure to stay away and deal with it from afar. Be sure to bring fire resistance potions and enchanted gear.

Trial of EarthThe spirit of the bear is greatly resistant to physical damage but luckily enough it has a weakness with magic. The bear has fortified physical attacks which means you should be always on the move and not let it get to you as much as possible. Gear with a high enough armor rating is vital to this trial.

Trial of NatureThe spirit of nature is invulnerable to magic damage. It has no weakness plus it comes with three lesser tree spirits to aid her in battle. It is much more easier to have allies to fight with you as the battle could get out of hand pretty quickly. Gear up with magic resistance and a good armor rating is also necessary for this trial.

COMPATIBILITY / ISSUES

Sometimes the wolf, and bear reportedly glitches when running through walls and will enable you to pass through them.

The Grandmaster - True Unarmed and Unarmored Combat mod by leecarter is incompatible as it causes players to have their health reduced every time they transform. There seems to be a conflict as to how much health should be returned to the player.

It has been reported that the aspect of earth has an issue with the Requiem mod as it causes the movement speed to drastically drop to the point that you're not able to move.

The enchantments on equipment do not get re-applied when the equipment are re-equipped. I've found that this is a vanilla issue and I do not know if there is a workaround to make this work properly. If anyone knows how to re-equip items without losing enchantments let me know.

It has been reported that BodyTypes 2.0 sometimes causes the aspects' models to be invisible.

LATEST UPDATE

Note: Back up your save files before updating! Existing users should use a clean save before updating!

V3.2 Update

The aspect of nature now uses the male spriggan mesh by VectorPlexus for male characters.

Important: This update has the carry weight fix integrated so the optional ESP file is no longer necessary. Please delete that file before installing this update.

CREDITS

Thanks to VectorPlexus for his amazing work on the male spriggan meshes!

Would like to thank Jared Bangerter and his excellent tutorial on making transformation spells. I've personally never modded before but his teachings have proven to be really helpful. He's also the author of the mod Master Shapeshifter which is available on the Nexus.